Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Portada Triangular Greenhouse

Portada Triangular is a small community nearby El Alto, one of the
most impoverished districts of La Paz. About two hundred families live
there in small houses clustered on the steep slope of the valley, in
which the main part of the city is located. The first time you get there
it is hard to take your eyes away from the breath-taking view the
people who live there see every day. Getting off the bus on the
Autopista, the motorway leading to El Alto, heavily breathing whilst
climbing up the steep stairs towards Portada Triangular; you have behind
you the snowy peaks of Illimani overlooking La Paz. It reminds you that
you are in the middle of the Andes, almost 4000 metres above sea level.

We arrived at the centre for the first time on Friday, the 15th of
February. We – the four volunteers from the UK working for
Entrepreneurship – were given the task of building a greenhouse in the
children’s centre run by Aldeas Infantiles SOS in Portada Triangular.
The task, seemingly straightforward, is an initial part of the 3 year
project Emprendimiento (which means ‘Entrepreneurship’) that aims
at introducing greenhouses for the homes of the community in Portada
Triangular. In a nutshell, the principal goal is to improve the
nutrition of the people living in the community but also increasing
women empowerment by incorporating central female involvement. Moreover,
the target is to develop entrepreneurial skills with community members.
Therefore, before our first visit to the community, we needed undertook
weeks of brainstorming, researching, making contacts and getting
approvals.

Tom [Project Coordinator for Entrepreneurship] whispering sweet nothings into Kapil’s ear at the community meeting!

As
with any development project, the path towards our goal is long and
consists of many tiny steps – smaller goals – that need to be achieved
before we build the greenhouse. Our first task was learning about the
people within the community – their lives, their incomes, their diets
etc. In order to gain this information, we produced a questionnaire
consisting of 20 questions on the areas of our interest. Having prepared
the questionnaire, we could go to Portada Triangular to meet the very
welcoming members of Junta Vecinal (local government) and gain their
approval and commitment of support. That, in fact, proved to be crucial
during the preceding week when we were implementing our questionnaires.

The
questionnaire team with the Junta Vecinal. From left to right: James
Wainman, Clara Chan, two members of Junta Vecinal, Alexandra Kirkham,
Brysa Baker, Bartosz Pęziński, Adriana Vacaflores Villazón

By Wednesday, we had 28 questionnaires completed and a lot of
material to analyse for the community event we were organising for the
following Saturday. During that week, when we were getting responses for
the questionnaires and some of us were working at the children’s
centre, we felt how quickly we were getting attached to this small
community. Going there every day and spending a lot of time with Freddie
and Natalio – the representatives of Junta Vecinal – who took us around
Portada Triangular and introduced us to many members of the community
which we spoke to and who happily participated in answering our
questionnaires – left us feeling very welcomed and even more
enthusiastic about the purpose of our project. As a result of our
research, we learned that most families in Portada Triangular live on a
very small income and have monotonic diets consisting of mainly
carbohydrates. Most importantly for us, many people we spoke to saw the
need of changing their diet, by increasing their consumption of fruit
and vegetables. The great majority perceived our project as very
important for them and for their community and expressed their
willingness to participate.

The main aim of Emprendimiento, which also is the biggest challenge
in its successful implementation, is to get the people of the community
directly involved. The fault of many development projects can be found
in a blunt attitude by Western organisations that provide the financial
resources but overlook training and motivational aspects. Here, in
Portada Triangular, our aim is to introduce the idea of a greenhouse,
assist in implementing the pilot scheme and leave it to be run solely by
the community. It won’t be our greenhouse – it will be the community’s
greenhouse.

As part of the process of getting the community involved, after the
week of implementing the questionnaires; we organised a social event in
the community centre. It was a big day for us as the result of the event
would tell us about the true level of community interest and enthusiasm
in our project. When we arrived at 4pm on Saturday, the meeting room in
the community centre was empty. No one had arrived yet, but as we were
getting anxious, Freddie explained to us – Patiencia [“patience”]
– the word you hear often in Bolivia. And true enough, by 5pm, the room
filled with people and we started our presentation. After introducing
ourselves, we spoke for about an hour about the goals and specifics of
the project. People listened, some took notes and afterwards we were
acknowledged with applause. The reception was brilliant. The
presentation was followed by a vigorous discussion between us and a
clearly enthusiastic audience. The sheets we prepared for potential
volunteers to help in the project were filled with 13 names and numbers,
topped with a donation of 150 adobe bricks we plan to build the
greenhouse with. The meeting ended with a friendly atmosphere when all
of us sat together and ate the food we had earlier prepared.

Kapil Pankhania presenting, along with Bartosz Pęziński, Clara Chan and James Wainman to the community of Portada Triangular

That week, following the successful Saturday event, we were imbued
with optimism and motivation for the greenhouse project. Having
experienced the welcoming and positive attitude of the people of the
community of Portada Triangular, we have felt our work there has a real
and great purpose and now we look forward to the next steps of the
project. We all know that once we see its final result we will be able
to leave Bolivia feeling happy and complete.